The HTC HD2 was released as a Windows Mobile phone towards the end of 2009 and is thus not older than 13-14 months. Its hardware is still among the best ones out there.
Unfortunately, with Microsoft's decision to (more or less) abandon Windows Mobile, many of us HD2-owners felt that we had a "dying" phone in our hands with no support whatsoever and many owners have sold their devices - also due to the lack of new software while seeing Android growing with its huge marketplace.
I also felt that way and I was going to sell mine and buy an Android-phone but then some truly genius hackers/developers started to port Android to HTC HD2 which has very often hardware in common with other HTC Android high-end devices. Until a few days ago, I loaded my HD2 in WM-mode and then I launched a program that wiped out Windows Mobile and loaded the Android-port. There are many Android-builds available such as 2.1, Froyo and Gingerbread, Desire HD and so on and most of them are fully functional. The only problem was that battery tended to drain quite fast but also that has nearly been resolved with the latest kernels/builds.
On December 30, 2010 a NAND-version was released and we can now flash an Android-image and wipe away for good Windows Mobile from the phone if we wish (with the possibility to restore). With the NAND-event, the HD2 is now truly an Android-device. However, even loading Android-builts from SD is working flawlessly.
Why I am writing about this? Well, I know that there are developers here that have not yet bought an Android-device. Maybe you are in the same position as me i.e. you are still supporting some Windows Mobile applications of yours but still you want to develop for Android and test your applications on a true Android-device. For me, this solution means that I can continue developing for both platforms without buying a new phone (which was expensive). As I said, many people decided to sell their HD2 and maybe by looking at online-auctions you may find a HD2 at a good price.
And there is more.....Windows Phone 7 has been seen running on the HD2 (there are videos on YouTube) although some live-services of Microsoft may not be accessible but there are rumours this "problem" has been resolved as well. The bootloader which one uses to load Android seems to foresee the possibility to load WP7 as well. Needless to say, the developers are the same.
In addition, there are working versions of Ubuntu and even Win95 and Win98 available for HD2.
If you search XDA, you will find plenty of information.
This was meant as a tip - I am sure glad that I did not replace my phone and I am still in position to carry on developing for both platforms (using Basic4PPC and Basic4Android).
Unfortunately, with Microsoft's decision to (more or less) abandon Windows Mobile, many of us HD2-owners felt that we had a "dying" phone in our hands with no support whatsoever and many owners have sold their devices - also due to the lack of new software while seeing Android growing with its huge marketplace.
I also felt that way and I was going to sell mine and buy an Android-phone but then some truly genius hackers/developers started to port Android to HTC HD2 which has very often hardware in common with other HTC Android high-end devices. Until a few days ago, I loaded my HD2 in WM-mode and then I launched a program that wiped out Windows Mobile and loaded the Android-port. There are many Android-builds available such as 2.1, Froyo and Gingerbread, Desire HD and so on and most of them are fully functional. The only problem was that battery tended to drain quite fast but also that has nearly been resolved with the latest kernels/builds.
On December 30, 2010 a NAND-version was released and we can now flash an Android-image and wipe away for good Windows Mobile from the phone if we wish (with the possibility to restore). With the NAND-event, the HD2 is now truly an Android-device. However, even loading Android-builts from SD is working flawlessly.
Why I am writing about this? Well, I know that there are developers here that have not yet bought an Android-device. Maybe you are in the same position as me i.e. you are still supporting some Windows Mobile applications of yours but still you want to develop for Android and test your applications on a true Android-device. For me, this solution means that I can continue developing for both platforms without buying a new phone (which was expensive). As I said, many people decided to sell their HD2 and maybe by looking at online-auctions you may find a HD2 at a good price.
And there is more.....Windows Phone 7 has been seen running on the HD2 (there are videos on YouTube) although some live-services of Microsoft may not be accessible but there are rumours this "problem" has been resolved as well. The bootloader which one uses to load Android seems to foresee the possibility to load WP7 as well. Needless to say, the developers are the same.
In addition, there are working versions of Ubuntu and even Win95 and Win98 available for HD2.
If you search XDA, you will find plenty of information.
This was meant as a tip - I am sure glad that I did not replace my phone and I am still in position to carry on developing for both platforms (using Basic4PPC and Basic4Android).
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